Vittorio De Sica was born on July 7 th 1901 at Sora (Frosinone). He spends his infancy in Naples, but at eleven years old he goes to Rome where later he gets the diploma of accountant. But at this point his big passion for the theater prevails and in 1922 Vittorio enters to be part of the company of Tatiana Pavlova. After years of mess-tin and after having changed for a long time, he forms a company together with Giuditta Rissone (that becomes his wife too) and Umberto Melnati, that with the shows Za-Bum gets a discreet success. His first apparition in a film goes up again to 1912, when still child he recites a part in Il processo Clémenceau, but it can be said that his cinema actor career begins in 1931 with La vecchia signora; however De Sica makes his fortune thanks to Mario Camerini, with which in a film such "Gli uomini, che mascalzoni"! and "Grandi magazzini " plays the key role and imposes himself as bright actor. It’s in 1940 that De Sica acts as director after having snatched all the secret of the set: his first films are Red roses (1940), Maddalena zero for conduct (1940), Doctor beware (1941) and A garibaldian in the convent (1942), but it is thanks to his Children are watching us (1943) that lets notice himself as sensitive and busy director. Nevertheless it is only in the postwar period that De Sica, thanks to the collaboration with Cesare Zavattini, succeeds in expressing his best: in fact he enters with full rights among the directors of the Neoralism thanks to film like Shoe shine (1946), The bicycles thief (1948), Miracle in Milan (1951), Umberto D. (1952), in which there is a clear social denunciation. These however, even if rewarded abroad with varied Oscars, in Italy, at least to the beginning, they don't attract the public and consequently the collections are scarce; Vittorio has instead a big need of money, since he the gambling habit, and it is for this motive that he decides to work with the Americans in Indiscretion that marks the beginning of his descending parable as artist. The same motive pushes him to devote more always to the activity of actor and with Pane, amore e fantasia (1953, of L.Comencini) he founds himself to have become a superstar in Italy. However, also Vittorio De Sica director, is a name with good, often excellent, international quotations. He is not transformed, almost never, in a director-dealer. When he finds it possible, he throws on high spectacular elements some grain of salt of the old Neorealist. Gold of Naples, where De Sica works on the festive inventions of the bonario Giuseppe Marotta, comes out fresh and vivacious; Two women (1960), between vivid and others less prickly pages, he proposes a beautiful portrait of plebeian played by Sophia Loren that, for that role, gets the Oscar. When, on November 13 th 1974, he dies, De Sica is by now a national institution. After all, they all care of him. An actor, a director from to applaud sight unseen, with the lowered curtain.

FILMOGRAPHY

1939 - Red roses
1940 - Maddalena, zero for conduct
1941 - Doctor beware
1941 - Garibaldian in the convent
1942 - The children are watching us
1946 - Shoe shine
1946 - Gate of Heaven
1948 - The bicycle thief
1951 - Miracle in Milan
1952 - Umberto D
1953 - Indiscretion of an American wife
1954 - Gold of Naples
1956 - The roof
1958 - Anna of Brooklyn
1961 - Two women
1961 - The last judgment
1962 - Boccaccio ' 70 (segment La Riffa)
1962 - The Condemned of Altona
1963 - Il boom
1963 - Yesterday, today and tomorrow
1964 - Marriage Italian Style
1966 - The witches (episode "An evening as the others")
1966 - A new world
1966 - After the fox
1967 - Woman times seven
1968 - Place for lovers
1970 - Sunflower
1970 - The garden of the Finzi-Continis
1970 - The couples (episode The " lion ")
1971 - From the referendum to the constitution: June 2
1971 - The Knights of Malta
1972 - We’ll call him Andrew
1973 - A brief vacation
1974 - The voyage

PRIZES

1946 - Silver ribbon ex aequo for the best direction (Shoeshine)
1948 - Silver ribbon for the best leading role (Cuore)
1949 - Silver ribbon for the best direction and the best screen-play (The bicycles thief)
1949 - Festival of Locarno: special prize (Bicycles Thieves)
1951 - Festival of Cannes: Big prize ex aequo and prize Fipresci (Miracle in Milan)
1952 - Festival of Punta del Este: prize for the best film (Umberto D.)